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Johannesburg Centre,
Astronomical Society of Southern Africa
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Editorial The Venus transit was a sight to behold. Your editor did some pretty serious cursing between about 06:00 and 07:30 on the 8th of June just past. Ed Finlay’s story of that luckless French Astronomer came to mind until the clouds at last began to make spaces - after that it was a breeze ( if you’ll excuse the weather pun! ). We have a short piece and an image covering the occasion. After its once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunity, Venus is now rapidly rising in our morning sky while its old mythological companions head downwards in the evening sky. Venus is very bright at present and cannot be missed. Jupiter is still well placed and fairly luminous in the early evening though its ringed partner Saturn, while still easy to view, is now much smaller, lower down in the sky and less bright. Burt Rutan and his partners have done it!!! SpaceShipOne became the very first non-governmental spacecraft to make it into space and safely return to Earth. South African born Test pilot Mike Melville took the spacecraft up to 100 kilometres and returned after a flight lasting about 90 minutes. This all on a “shoestring” budget. It looks like space flight for ALL is just on the horizon - and now there have been two South Africans in Space - not bad for a country which doesn’t even have a proper space program. Our Chairman Dave Gordon chats about his sojourn in the Southern United States where he went on the hunt for interesting observatories, craters and canyons, while Brian Fraser, as always, provides the items of overhead interest over the next two months as well as submitting an erudite poem for your enjoyment. We also hear of a most generous donation to the Jo’burg Centre by Eben van Zyl. This issue is essentially in preparation for our AGM on the 14th July and contains, amongst other items, a loose insert with the voting form for next year’s committee as well as an annual subscription renewal form. We ask that when renewing your subs, you please supply updated personal information, especially your email address so that we may always keep you appraised of the latest Astronomical Society happenings. The Editor - chris @ penberthy . co . za |
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